1. Technical Field of the Invention
The presently disclosed invention relates to a polygonal packaging having an inner hollow body, an outer hollow body, and a latch arrangement, wherein the inner body slides telescopically within the outer body to create a container of variable length. A twist-and-push or pull movement is used for engaging or disengaging the latch arrangement and thus closing or opening the two hollow bodies assigned to each other.
2. Background of the Invention
Sliding packaging may comprise two hollow bodies each of which is closed on one face and open on the opposite face. These hollow bodies can be connected to one another by sliding one into the other telescopically and use a latch arrangement which comprises at least a first row of notches disposed on one hollow body with at least one latch notch and at least a second row of notches disposed on the other hollow body with at least one latch notch. The hollow bodies may be latched when the first row of latch notches interlocks with the assigned second row of latch notches when the hollow bodies slide one into the other. In order to separate the two hollow bodies the touching rows of notches can be disengaged by twisting the two hollow bodies counter to one another about their longitudinal axes.
Such prior art has become partially known through German patent publication DE4406932 C2. In this packaging container a variable length is obtained using latchways that are arranged on the corners of an outer sleeve, which have rows of latch notches which engage with rows of notches that are provided in sequence on the corners of an inner sleeve, in the direction of sliding, which form a latchway.
In German patent publication DE4406932 C2, the corner of the latchway of the inner sleeve is attached to the corner of the latchway of the outer sleeve, and the two parts can be connected to one another by simply sliding the inner sleeve into the outer sleeve. The latching arrangement is intended so that the latchway of the inner sleeve is slid open on the latchway of the outer sleeve.
After the two latchways have been locked together by direct interlocking, the latching movement effected by push or pull is relatively difficult and is only achieved with greater pushing force or contrary opening force. For this reason the mentioned German patent publication DE4406932 C2 proposes that the outer and inner sleeves can be twisted relative to one another in order to achieve the open and closed position.
In the open and closed position it is intended that the latchway of the inner sleeve, for example, is disengaged from the latchway of the outer sleeve arranged on the corner side. In this open and closed position the two parts are able to slide against each other a little and can be set to any arbitrary length to each other and through renewed mutual twisting of the hollow bodies their latchways are engaged again.
Such a packaging container has been widely proven. The disadvantage of the known packaging container, however, is that the transition from the locked position to the open position can only occur through deformation of the wall of the outer sleeve, which must deform with its walls flexing radially outward, to allow a clearance for the latchway of the inner sleeve to slide along the inside of the outer sleeve. A high torque is therefore required to twist the two parts against each other, whereby the container walls of the outer sleeve must move flexibly outward. Such increased torque is not desirable.
Another disadvantage of the known packaging sleeve is that the whole latch only then works if at least the material of the outer sleeve is designed to be flexibly pliant. With a relatively rigid plastic material or even other materials, such as wood, cardboard, paper, metal and similar materials, for example, which have no high deformability, the known latch according to German patent publication DE4406932 C2 does not work because the flexibility of the outer sleeve does not exist in the required dimension.
It is therefore an object of the presently disclosed invention to develop a packaging container which may allow the sliding position to be effected by twist-and-push or pull movement between an outer sleeve and an inner sleeve using as little sliding force as possible. That is, the transition between the locked position and the open position of the packaging container may be achieved using less force and even when less flexible materials are used for the outer sleeve.